Rubio announces closure of State Department effort that ‘was supposed to be dead’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the closure of a State Department effort that he accused of spending millions on censorship.
“I am announcing the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio asserted.
STATE DEPARTMENT’S ‘GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT CENTER’ ACCUSED OF CENSORING AMERICANS SHUTS ITS DOORS
The GEC closed in December, according to an archived State Department website content that is still viewable online.
Rubio asserted in a piece published on The Federalist that the GEC had not actually ended, but was simply re-branded.
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“When Republicans in Congress sunset GEC’s funding at the end of last year, the Biden State Department simply slapped on a new name. The GEC became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) office, with the same roster of employees. With this new name, they hoped to survive the transition to the new administration,” Rubio wrote. “Today, we are putting that to an end. Whatever name it goes by, GEC is dead. It will not return.”
Former House lawmaker Dan Bishop, who is now serving as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, thanked Rubio. “This is the way,” the former congressman wrote in a post on X.
WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL AXES UN, NATO FUNDS AND HALVES STATE DEPARTMENT BUDGET
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Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc., responded to Rubio’s announcement, tweeting, “Excellent.”
Former FAA contractor admits to leaking US intel to Iran for years
A naturalized U.S. citizen living in Great Falls, Virginia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to working with Iranian government and intelligence officials on their behalf in the U.S. as a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) between 2017 and 2024.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said 42-year-old Abouzar Rahmati pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the U.S. without prior notification to the Attorney General.
Rahmati previously was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 1st Lt., a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, from June 2009 to May 2010. The IRGC is a designated terrorist group by the U.S. government.
Court documents show that from at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati worked with Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials on their behalf in the U.S.
VIRGINIA FAA CONTRACTOR ALLEGEDLY SPIED FOR IRAN, SHARED PRIVATE INFO ON US AIRPORTS, ENERGY INDUSTRY: DOJ
During that period, Rahmati met with Iranian intelligence in Iran, communicated with Iranian authorities using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtained employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive, non-public information about the U.S. aviation sector, and obtained and provided open-source and non-public materials about the solar energy industry in the U.S. to intelligence officers.
The DOJ said Rahmati offered his services to Iran in August 2017 through a former colleague who was a senior Iranian government official who previously worked at the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.
Rahmati traveled to Iran four months later and met with intelligence operatives and government officials, the DOJ said. He also agreed to gather and provide Iranian officials with information about the solar industry in the U.S.
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When he returned to the U.S. in early 2018, Rahmati obtained private and open-source materials related to the U.S. solar industry, then provided them to the office of Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology.
While working as an FAA contractor in the U.S., Rahmati downloaded at least 175 GB of files, including sensitive access-controlled FAA documents relating to the National Aerospace System (NAS), NAS Airport Surveillance Radar systems and radio frequency data, the DOJ said.
DOES IRAN’S HACKING OF THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN PROVE THEY WANT KAMALA HARRIS TO WIN THE ELECTION? EXPERTS WEIGH IN
Rahmati stored the files on removable media, which he took to Iran in April 2022 and provided to government officials, according to the DOJ.
He also provided additional information about solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air traffic control towers to his brother living in Iran in April 2022, the DOJ added, so his brother could provide the files to intelligence officials on Rahmati’s behalf.
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Rahmati is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 26, and he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government, and up to five years in prison for conspiracy.
Harvard responds to Trump admin pulling millions in grants after refusing to meet demands
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem canceled $2.7 million in DHS grants to Harvard University on Wednesday.
In a statement, Noem announced the cancelation of two grants for the university, and declared the elite Massachusetts Ivy League institution “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
The university has been ordered to submit records by April 30, or risk losing its certification to enroll international students under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP).
“With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory,” Noem said in the statement. “America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
A Harvard spokesperson responded Thursday morning, “The government has long exempted universities from taxes in order to support their educational mission. The tax exemption means that more of every dollar can go toward scholarships for students, lifesaving and life-enhancing medical research, and technological advancements that drive economic growth. There is no legal basis to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status.”
TRUMP ADMIN ASKS IRS TO REVOKE HARVARD’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS
The canceled grants include an $800,303 “Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention” award, which DHS says classified conservatives as far-right extremists, and a $1,934,902 “Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement” grant, which funded public health messaging that Noem’s office described as ideologically skewed.
The move follows President Donald Trump‘s decision to freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard and ask for the IRS to revoke its tax-exempt status.
The IRS is currently reviewing the university’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation, according to sources within the Department of Justice (DOJ). A final decision has not yet been made.
Harvard’s statement continued to say that rescinding its tax-exempt status “would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission. It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation. The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”
In a social media post, Trump criticized Harvard’s leadership and faculty, writing, “Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders.’” He continued, “Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds.”
STEFANIK SHREDS HARVARD OVER ‘COMPLETE MORAL FAILURE’ AFTER ALLOWING CLAUDINE GAY TO REMAIN PRESIDENT
The DHS action comes amid a broader federal crackdown on campus antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
In the months since, Harvard has faced criticism over antisemitic rhetoric and protests involving students and faculty. Noem’s letter references “foreign visa-holding rioters” and calls for Harvard to provide documentation of their conduct.
With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard is one of the wealthiest institutions in the world. DHS emphasized that the university can afford to fund its own programs and should not rely on taxpayer money if it is not meeting federal standards for student conduct and institutional accountability.
The Department of Education is also scrutinizing the university. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recently launched a review of more than $255.6 million in federal contracts and nearly $9 billion in grants involving Harvard and its affiliates.
“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” McMahon said.
This move comes shortly after similar action was taken against Columbia University, as the federal government steps up enforcement on institutions it says are failing to meet civil rights and national security obligations.
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Noem’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Reporter confronted on ‘morally good’ comment about alleged healthcare CEO killer
Former New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz said her comments about alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione weren’t about her defense of him but about the mentality of his supporters.
Lorenz spoke with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday in an interview where she attempted to clarify remarks she made about Mangione and his appeal to Americans upset with the healthcare system.
“What I’m describing, and if you watch the full segment, not just the clip, you’ll see that I’m just describing the mentality of these fangirls [who] show up outside Luigi’s court and show up outside his jail cell,” said Lorenz. “Those girls are not me, OK? We have very separate belief systems. But I was describing how they believe.”
WHO IS LUIGI MANGIONE, SUSPECT IN UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO MURDER?
The former Washington Post columnist told CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan last week about Mangione’s support among women, arguing he’s a “revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart.”
“He’s a person who seems like he’s this morally good man, which is hard to find,” Lorenz said.
Brian Thompson, the healthcare executive who was gunned down in midtown Manhattan in December, was a 50-year-old father of two.
He’d been on the job for nearly four years before he was assassinated outside the New York Hilton.
SHOCKING VIDEO SHOWS UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO BRIAN THOMPSON GUNNED DOWN ON NYC STREET
Hannity asked Lorenz if she would agree that anyone who praises Mangione lacks “a soul, a conscience and a heart.”
“Well, what I will say, Sean, once again, is that I believe in free speech. I don’t believe in things like, you know, religious things like souls and all of these things,” she answered.
CNN TAKES HEAT FOR ‘JOURNALISTIC MALFEASANCE’ AFTER AIRING TAYLOR LORENZ FAWNING OVER LUIGI MANGIONE
“If you can’t have sympathy for a dead father and husband, do you lack a conscience, a soul and a heart? That’s a simple question. You’re a smart woman,” Hannity responded.
Lorenz reiterated the challenges within the U.S. healthcare system, citing nearly 70,000 Americans dying each year due to a lack of health insurance.
“You want to talk about the assassination of innocent people? I believe that the tens of thousands of Americans [who] die each year because of the lack of health insurance. That is, to me, a violence in itself. That is assassination,” the Substack writer explained.
Hannity asked Lorenz one final time if she condemns Mangione’s supporters and the people who praise him for allegedly murdering Thompson.
“The people [who] are showing up outside to support Luigi, they’re exercising their right to speech. They’re talking about the fact that over 320,000 people died from [a] lack of health insurance in the first two years of the pandemic alone,” she said.
“There are major things we need to acknowledge if we ever want to fix our system. We have a violent, violent healthcare system, Sean, and it needs reform. And that’s what we should be focusing on.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in early April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Mangione’s case.
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He faces charges of using a firearm to commit murder, interstate stalking resulting in death, stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death, and one count of discharging a firearm that was equipped with a silencer in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
‘Bum’ killer mooched off locals before murdering mom of 5, lawyer says
The attorney for Rachel Morin’s family says the trial of her murderer is a testament to relentless law enforcement and a devastating indictment of immigration failures that allowed her killer to murder the Maryland mom of five.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was found guilty of raping and murdering Morin in August 2023. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in 46 minutes after a weeklong trial that exposed the graphic details of the crime and the cross-country manhunt that followed.
“After 19 months of going through this nightmare of losing Rachel, we now have a verdict,” Randolph Rice, the Morin family attorney, told Fox News Digital. “Victor Martinez-Hernandez is guilty on all counts.”
RACHEL MORIN MURDER: JURY FINDS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT GUILTY OF KILLING JOGGER
The Baltimore-based attorney said the migrant was a “bum” who took advantage of the people he stayed with.
“What we also learned was that he really had no connections to that community, other than he might have had some people that he knew from El Salvador when he was a little child, and apparently he seemed like he was couch-surfing wherever he could find a home,” Rice said.
“He was a troublemaker. He was a bum who didn’t pay for a thing and was ultimately kicked out of that Bel Air home,” he said. “Even though they got him jobs, he was just sitting at the bar drinking.”
The Salvadoran migrant’s path led him to the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, a quaint community northeast of Baltimore, on Aug. 14, 2023.
“She was attacked and dragged into a tunnel. Her Apple Watch later became a critical piece of evidence, linking the suspect directly to the crime scene,” Rice said.
Witnesses described following blood trails that eventually led to Morin’s remains. Forensic teams later recovered DNA from her body, the tunnel wall and other surrounding evidence.
RACHEL MORIN’S ALLEGED ILLEGAL KILLER LEFT SLAIN JOGGER’S BODY ALONG 150-FOOT BLOOD TRAIL
They described a trail with flattened leaves before finding rocks with blood on them. The two witnesses walked through two tunnels with overgrown brush, where they found Morin’s body.
“I saw an unclothed human body on her back. At first, I truly thought it might have been a deer or something that had died in there,” testified Evan Knapp, who found Morin’s body. “So, I had to move a bit closer to confirm what I had seen, and it was a human. I feel like time froze for a second, and I didn’t know what I was looking at.”
Knapp and his friend, Cecilia, immediately called 911. Authorities retraced the path where Morin’s body had been dragged after her rape and murder. Police also collected large bloody rocks that authorities said were used to smash her skull.
Autopsy results revealed that Morin had endured 15 to 20 blows to the head and had died from a combination of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Her death was officially ruled a homicide.
Rice said this was a “preventable crime” that touched on a flash point in the 2024 presidential race with immigration front and center.
“This was a preventable crime because you had an individual who should not have been in the United States.”
“And in fact, he was stopped three times at the border. He was returned to Mexico. And then ultimately he crosses a fourth time in El Paso, Texas. And then he goes on his spree of crimes in the United States, starting in Los Angeles. There, he breaks into a house and he assaults a mother and daughter there, and then he makes his way across the country, presumably on a bus, to Bel Air, Maryland.”
WATCH: VICTOR MARTINEZ-HERNANDEZ ARREST
Rice praised the dedication of law enforcement, noting that investigators combined DNA evidence, digital tracking and social media clues to locate the suspect. He was ultimately arrested at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
RACHEL MORIN MURDER: FORMER FBI AGENT REVEALS HOW CAPTURE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN KILLING WENT DOWN
“He had screenshots of press releases about Rachel’s murder saved on his phone,” Rice said. “He knew the net was closing in.”
Despite denying ever being in Maryland, Martinez-Hernandez’s DNA was matched to multiple sources at the crime scene.
Morin, 37, left behind five children. Her 14-year-old daughter was the first witness to testify last week, fighting back tears as she described her mother’s disappearance.
“This is a scary reminder of how careful we have to be when we’re out and about,” said Rice. “Rachel never knew this man. It was completely random.”
Martinez-Hernandez is set to be sentenced and could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fox News Digital reached out to his attorney.
With visible emotion, Morin’s mother, Patty Morin, spoke as a special guest at Wednesday’s press briefing at the White House, sharing personal testimony about the urgent need to remove criminal migrants from the country.
“These are the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country. These are the kind of criminals that we need removed from our country. We are American citizens,” she said. “Why should we allow people like this, violent criminals that have no conscience at all, to murder our mothers, our sisters, our daughters?”
“I don’t understand why there’s even any kind of problem with this. … We need to protect our families, our borders, our children,” she said.
Rice slammed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., for traveling to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on the condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 39-year-old who was deported to the El Salvadoran mega prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center for being an alleged MS-13 gang member, though his attorneys maintain he does not have any gang ties.
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“So it seems that he is giving more attention to an illegal immigrant than he is to a Maryland and American citizen, Rachel Morin,” Rice said. “That’s crazy … it is just a no-brainer. You’re here to protect Americans and Marylanders. And he’s more worried about going to El Salvador and bringing an illegal immigrant back who is a gang member.”
After Martinez-Hernandez was convicted of Morin’s murder, Van Hollen said in a statement he was grateful to law enforcement and calling for “meaningful action” to reform “our broken immigration system.”
“We can do this while also supporting our immigrant communities and respecting the rights of individuals who are here legally – I am committed to doing both, and I will continue pressing my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to move forward on this issue,” Van Hollen said.
Liberals fume over Bill Maher’s positive remarks about Trump after White House dinner
Several members of the liberal media are fuming over “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s monologue recapping his dinner with President Donald Trump at the White House.
Maher went viral last Friday in his first show since he and Trump met face-to-face in a meeting coordinated by their mutual friend Kid Rock. Maher called Trump “gracious and measured” and suggested the man in the Oval Office is not the man the rest of the world sees on TV.
“I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,” Maher told his audience. “And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will. Me? I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.”
BILL MAHER REVEALS TRUMP WAS ‘GRACIOUS AND MEASURED’ AT WHITE HOUSE MEETING, SAYS HE’S NOT THE MAN SEEN ON TV
While conservatives celebrated Maher’s White House visit, many liberals were irked by his comments.
“Congrats, @billmaher. You got played by Trump. Easy mark. He used you like a fiddle,” Substack writer Wajahat Ali reacted on X.
“BTW don’t overanalyze Maher prostituting himself to Trump,” ex-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann wrote. “I’ve known Bill since 1978. He was a shameless opportunist with no real principles then and he remains so. This is so he can keep his HBO show.”
BILL MAHER CALLS TRUMP ONE OF THE ‘MOST EFFECTIVE POLITICIANS’ BECAUSE OF HIS AUTHENTICITY
Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall similarly thought Maher’s D.C. visit was purely “self-serving,” linking it to the post-election Mar-a-Lago visit by MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, asking how anyone who views Trump as a “threat to democracy” can go “break bread” with him unless it involved their bottom line.
“When you over-explain, you’re guilty,” Marshall told Fox News Digital. “I guess we’ll find out in a few months if this was a bad decision for him based on ratings and subscriptions.”
The Washington Post was quite forceful against Maher’s trip to the White House. It published a story Monday titled “Trump charmed Bill Maher. The comedian’s fans don’t find it funny.” The report cited Reddit users and comments on social media slamming the HBO host, many of them vowing they’d quit watching his show, as well as an Oakland lawyer who told the Post he lacks “empathy” for those impacted by Trump’s policies like the laid-off federal employees.
WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST CLASHES WITH BILL MAHER ON ‘FALLING IN THE TRAP’ OF TALKING TO TRUMP
Washington Post columnist León Krauze authored a piece declaring Maher “got played” by Trump, comparing his comments about the president to flattery others have given to Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong over their private interactions.
“By agreeing to meet with Trump, allowing himself to be privately charmed by a charismatic leader and then sharing his softened new take on the president, Bill Maher has made the task of holding Trump accountable that much more difficult,” Krauze concluded.
Washington Post global security analyst Josh Rogin brought his criticism directly to Maher during the “Real Time” panel discussion, telling the host he was a “prop” in Trump’s “PR stunt.”
MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin accused Maher of not realizing Trump was “using him” and suggested Maher fed into the “normalization of Trumpism” with his White House visit.
But not all liberals see the Maher-Trump dinner as a bad thing.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the meeting,” Fox News contributor Richard Fowler told Fox News Digital. “I think if you stay inside the Washington, D.C., beltway, it’s very easy to live inside of a political silo.”
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Fowler said while the Democratic “base” may see something wrong with meeting with Trump, they have to face the current reality that “Republicans control all the levers of power” and that expressing their concerns directly to him in an Oval Office conversation is a conversation worth having, even if it ends unsuccessfully.
“It’s a tool in the Democratic Party’s toolkit,” Fowler said.
Flight makes emergency landing after apparent rabbit strike
A United Airlines plane headed from Colorado to Edmonton, Canada, on Sunday had to return to the airport after reportedly hitting wildlife.
The Boeing 737-800 returned safely to Denver to “address a possible wildlife strike,” the airline confirmed to FOX Business.
FLIGHT BOUND FOR HAWAII ABORTS TAKEOFF FROM LAX DUE TO ‘UNSTABLE NOSE WHEEL’ AS SMOKE SEEN ON RUNWAY
Footage of the plane in the air showed bright flashes coming from the engine.
After returning to the gate, United arranged for a new aircraft to take the 153 passengers and six crew members from Denver to Edmonton.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL | UNITED AIRLINES HOLDINGS INC. | 66.99 | -0.10 | -0.14% |
SIEMENS EXECUTIVE, WIFE AND 3 KIDS ID’D AS HUDSON RIVER HELICOPTER CRASH VICTIMS
No injuries were reported.
It is unclear what type of wildlife was possibly hit, but other outlets, including the New York Post, reported it may have been a rabbit.
On Friday, the crew of a Hawaiian Airlines flight aborted takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport after reporting a “vibration” in the nose wheel.
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The Airbus A330, bound for Kahului Airport in Hawaii, returned to the gate without incident.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the Hawaiian Airlines incident.
10-year-old prodigy set to graduate from college with two degrees
A 10-year-old from San Bernardino, Calif., is a month away from graduating with two associate degrees from Crafton Hills College.
She will be the youngest to ever graduate from the Yucaipa-based community college, according to Inland Empire Community News. Her final GPA will be “close” to a 4.0.
Alisa Perales began taking classes when she was only 8 years old and will have just turned 11 at the time of the graduation ceremony.
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“It’s very fun to me. It’s almost as fun as playing outside or riding a bike or doing whatever. I just enjoy learning. There are so many interesting things out there,” Alisa said.
Perales, who has a home-schooling background, credited her dad for pushing her to do her best in school and work hard.
A post on the Inland Empire Community News Facebook page boasts that she once used her political science coursework to file a federal lawsuit challenging youth voting rights.
She would have earned two additional degrees in computer science and physics had she stayed one more semester.
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“When I first started at Crafton (at the age of 8), I was a little bit nervous…because this was my first time going to a public school,” said Alisa, “but then I met some really nice people, and that was super helpful.”
The young prodigy isn’t done yet. She has plans to work in the artificial intelligence tech industry.